Two Radio Amateurs Now on International Space Station

With the addition of three new crew members, the International Space Station (ISS) now has a full complement of six. Astronauts Ricky Arnold, KE5DAU, and Drew Feustel, and cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev headed into space on March 21 aboard a Soyuz MS-08 vehicle, launched from Kazakhstan.

The new ISS residents were welcomed on March 23 as part of the Expedition 55 crew by station commander Anton Shkaplerov and crew — Scott Tingle, KG5NZA, and Norishige Kanai. During his time in space, Arnold, a former educator, will wrap up NASA’s Year of Education on Station, an initiative to engage students and educators in human spaceflight and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers.

Arnold and Tingle will take turns handling all scheduled Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) school contacts in April.